Marvel’s “New Warriors” Squirrel Girl Gets Named

It’s a big month for Marvel and reveals what with Spider-Men II issue #1 releasing later on this week (July 12), beginning the search for Earth-616’s native Miles Morales. Arguably more important however is that the hotly debated Squirrel Girl casting choice has finally been revealed and met with mixed opinions from fans.

With a heavy heart I have to tell you it’s not anyone we expected, instead the Squirrel themed avenger will be played by Milana Vayntrub from This is Us. Vayntrub is set to star alongside Derek Theler (Mister Immortal), Jeremy Tardy (Night Thrasher), Calum Worthy (Speedball), Matthew Moy (Microbe) and Kate Comer (Debrii).

New Warriors will focus on six heroes coming to terms with their abilities and the impacts on their lives over a 10-episode series. Squirrel Girl suddenly sprouting a 4-foot long tail and being able to summon a horde of squirrels to do her bidding is bound to come as a bit of a shock, puberty is a difficult time for us all after all. Just what’s in store for the up-and-coming superheroes remains a source for speculation, however fans of the respective series will undoubtedly have some idea of what to expect. One thing for sure is that the series will be packed with the familiar Marvel humour and quips we’ve come to know and love.

Comic book fans are notoriously hard to please when it comes to on-screen adaptations of our favourite characters and story arcs. We naturally resist change and harden our hearts to anything unusual, which considering the source material is pretty dumb…the whole point is that everything is unusual and out-of-the-ordinary.

This being said however, Marvel has made some pretty incredible casting choices what the MCU selecting actors who appear to have been born for certain roles. Robert Downey Jr. and Tony Stark are one and the same, Captain America and Chris Evans are inseparable (let’s gloss over the fact he was also the Human Torch for a while), you couldn’t find a better Star Lord than Chris Pratt and that’s just a few of the excellent choices. Most recently Tom Holland has blown fans away with his incredible performance in Spider-Man Homecoming, so it’s a pretty high bar that Marvel have set themselves.

Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Luke Cage were mixed in their delivery and reception but unified under great casting choices throughout. I implore you to find a better choice for Kilgrave than David Tennant. So with such a promising standard it comes as no surprise that the upcoming New Warriors series will feature just as great a cast.

Fans have been eagerly awaiting to find out the identity of the lucky actress chosen to bring the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl to the screen. Shannon Purser, known for her role as Barb in Stranger Things, was a hot contender for the role along with Mae Whitman from Parenthood. However the favourite, across the board, seemed to be Anna Kendrick. Especially after the closing scene in Mr. Right where Anna dons a pair of cat ears and joins Sam Rockwell (Justin Hammer from Iron Man 2) in his assassin’s lifestyle, or when she dressed up as Indiana Jones for Comic Relief. Anna had openly expressed interest in taking up the role and fans thought for the longest time that she would be chosen to play the part, it was just a matter of the announcement.

I’m not bitter. Okay I’m pretty bitter, but as I’ve highlighted above, Marvel have made some perfect casting choices pretty much universally (heh..) so I don’t doubt this will work out for the best. I’m sure when the show comes to air in 2018 I will watch it with bated breath and end up loving every second of it.

A run in with a Nintendo 64 one fateful evening gave me an inexplicable power to untangle any wire and clear any game cartridge of dust. Powers that are little use in this day of wireless technology and digital media downloads....